17 May 2012
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New research from the Harvard Business Review shows that the aggregate ratings of Amazon reviewers are as good as professional book critics ...
New research from the Harvard Business Review shows that the aggregate ratings of Amazon reviewers are as good as professional book critics
The new research, which analysed the top 100 non-fiction reviews from media sources including the Guardian and the New York Times between 2004 and 2007, suggests that Amazon has democratised the process of book reviewing, creating consumer reviews that are representative of the book-reading public. Amazon reviewers are, according to the research, more likely to give a debut author a favourable review than a professional literary critic writing for a newspaper.
The survey also points out that there is 'virtually no quality assurance' in Amazon's reviews. The overall conclusion, though, is that experts and consumers tend to agree about the overall quality of a book.
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